It’s been so long since I played electric. When I was little, all I wanted was a fuzz box. Nowadays, nobody even knows what a fuzz box is. I might get an electric guitar and practice amp if I can get it before I fritter away my hongboa cash. I think if I have some effects, I won’t need to turn it up real loud and enrage the folks on the lower floors.
What should I get? Some distortion would be nice. Maybe a little reverberation too. I’d like to get a good Frank Zappa sound.
I like Processors better. I used a Digitech GSP 21 Legend.
For pedals I used Chorus, digital delay, cry baby wah wah, over drive, heavy metal, Compressor sustainer, volume, reverb (on the amp), … this was my basic set before I got a Zoom and then the Legend.
How about a wakka-chika-wakka-chika for porn music ?
I don’t need any devices to make her whine and moan.
The GSP21 looks good. it has a headphone jack. It has been discontinued by Digitech. Probably more than I would need. I never liked Waa Waa. I would be happy with simple distortion.
[quote]What should I get? Some distortion would be nice. Maybe a little reverberation too. I’d like to get a good Frank Zappa sound.
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The only way to get good distortion is to overdrive a tube amp. There are dozens of disortion pedals and multieffects, many of which I’ve used, but none even come close, though some are better than others. If you can find a Rat (Tony’s music has a couple of used ones I think), they’re pretty good, IMO, as are one or two of the Boss range – the OD2 is good.
Best choice hands down though is an old Ibanez Tube Screamer, but they’re pretty hard to find and I’m not selling mine. The newer ones have different circuitry and are shitey.
If I were you I’d keep it simple. You can get all kinds of multieffect pedals but if you’re coming back to playing after a long time away you’ll just end up faffing around endlessly with 100 or so effects, maybe three of which are any good.
Get the best tube amp you can afford would be my advice. You can always plug in a set of headphones. I wish I still had my little Mesa Boogie – sounded good at low volume and simply roared with the addition of an extension cabinet.
A crappy wee amp will sound like a crappy wee amp no matter what bells and whistles you stick in front of it.
Agreed with Sandman.
Tube amps are the only way to go. Natural distortion/overdrive. Finsing something in Taiwan might be hard though, although I have seen the Vox AC15 and AC30 for sale, as well as various Fenders. I am lusting after a Fender Vobroking or Tonemaster right now, my old Bandmaster needs to be reitired.
As for pedals, the Tube Screamer is the pedal of choice. The new reissues arent bad bu nothing beats an original. Another good choice is an MXR Micro Amp, a nice little boost pedal with a subtle overdrive. I have recently bought a Fulltone Fulldrive II, a boutique thing that has the original Tube Scremer TS808 vibe with a nice boost as well. Very tasty for stage work. That shop near ShiDa has them… cant remember the name.
Thanks. I went to that store last night. It’s the first shop that I have seen that had Fenders and Gibsons. I guess I don’t get out much. I saw a lot of boxes and pedals and will investigate the ones you mentioned. They had a crappy wee amp for 1500NT.
An AC30 will probably be a bit too much amp for your house – you need to drive them pretty hard to make them sing (although once you do … bliss, though probably not for your neighbours). The AC15 sounds tempting though. AWOL, have you looked at it? Can you slave it or use an extension cab? How much is it?
Sandman
The AC15 sounds great, but even 15W is loud for home use. You can slave it to an extension cab yes.
The new Orange amps are sweet as well, the AD15, AD30 etc… Class A and lush.
I am 99% sure I am buying a nice 70’s Hiwatt Combo… will let you know how that goes.
Tubes, yep…the best for overdrive…fuzz also sounds better dumping too much current into overdriven pre-amp tubes, especially if you can get power tube saturation.
Tube amps here are a rarity, I have two…a Marshall JCM2000 DSL201 (little 20 watt JCM that I put a vintage Celestion G12-T in).
I personally do NOT like digital, it doesn’t respond the same way. If you want to sound “like” a recording, processors are good, but if you want the genuine feel, the sag as the tubes ask for more power than the transformers can supply…the ability to play relatively clean, then get an overdriven note by digging in hard…analog/tube is the only way to go.
That being said, I have a Digitech RP200 that I’ve used for recording with good results and I’ve also used some of the Korg REMS models for recording. As long as you don’t expect them to be something they are not (a “model” of some very old equipment), they can be quite good in their place.
My effects case, sheesh, lets see if I can remember…have not played in a long time…Stage tuner ----> MXR Dynacomp (compressor) -----> Tubescreamer TS-9 (overdrive) ------> Boss FZ-3 (fuzz, not as good as the vintage germanium, but it does nicely) -------> Old board Crybaby Wah (for your wucka wucka porn music 
) -------> Some Boss Phaser (rarely used, dunno why I stuck it there for so long) -------> Danelectro Tremelo (cheap, but nice sound) --------> Ibanez DD10 echo/delay. I’d then run these to an ABY box and run two tube amps, the Marshall and a Peavey Classic 50 410…I’d run the Marshall dirty and run to board, with the Peavy clean and miced…
Mind you that this was after many, many years of trying things, this is what I came up with for my sound.
For someone setting up a new rig, you might consider a good overdrive, like a TS-9 (Ibanez Tubescreamer, think Stevie Ray Vaughan sound)…a compressor is nice, but you might not notice the difference right away, seems more noticable at stage volume…a delay is fun, I HIGHLY recommend the Ibanez DD10 as it does delay and echo (echo is just a delay where the repetitions degrade like they used to on the old tape echo systems).
For my taste, tube amps are the ONLY way to go, although I have played solid state when necessary. They are hard to find here, and can be expensive…servicing is unheard of (I fix my own, and if the repair is beyond my ability or willingness to look down the barrel at 600V at 1+ amp, then I just leave it until I can get it to a doctor who can cure it).
For home ONLY use, I really only recommend two tube amps…the Fender Blues Jr, available here…and the Marshall JCM2000 DSL201 (not available here, although mine MAY be for sale…let me know if you are interested). The Blues Jr. is 15w and the Marshall is 20w. The Jr. is actually louder than the Marshall due to power efficiency in the Fender circuit. The Marshall has a line out so that you can plug it direct to board, turn the power amp down, and practice through headphones off of the board (or amp or digital recorder or whatever 
).
Most modern amps have passable reverb, a lot have KILLER reverb .
Guitars? I play Fender…I like a little fight from my instruments. If you are interested in a Fender, the Japanese and Mexican Fenders are EXCELLENT instruments. I personally do not own an American version, have played a heavily modified Mexi-strat as my main instrument for years, and just sold a Mex-Fender re-issue of the '72 Tele Thinline Custome (semi-hollow body).
I’ve retired from professional music, and may have some things I’d be willing to part with. If you decide to go digital, I have the RP-200…the headphone volume seems a little low for me, but I probably have…errr…I DO have severe hearing loss from playing live. I also might be willing to part with the Marshall…I dunno, that one I have to think about…sentimental value, although it does bug me that it is just sitting in storage…my desire for a darkroom may override the sentimental value 
. I suppose I should also consider selling the effects in my effects case, if they aren’t played, they will eventually start to deteriorate…for that matter, now that I think about it, I think everything except the custom strat is probably for sale to someone who will actually use it .
The thing is do you really want to spend the $$$ on a tube amp? Probably not. Get a pod and rock and roll. If you want an AC 30 or 15 buy a Marshall Guvnor and it will crank the tubes without making it too loud.
Also what kind of sound are you looking for it would make a difference in the kind of distortion you want.